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Video Captures Oil Spill As Divers Prepare To Lift Derelict Vessel

The derelict vessel Deep Sea, which sank off Puget Sound’s Whidbey Island, continues to leak oil as the Washington Department of Ecology prepares to lift it from the water this week.

Divers already have removed 3,100 gallons of oil from the 140-foot vessel and soaked up another 1,400 gallons from inside a boom that was placed around the spill.

The Washington Department of Natural Resources had been trying to make the vessels owner, Rory Westmoreland, move the fishing vessel since January. EarthFix reported that the U.S. Coast Guard inspected the vessel in January, but underestimated the amount of fuel aboard and determined that it was not an imminent threat to the environment.

The vessel sank to the bottom of Whidbey Island’s Penn Cove. Nearby shelfish-growing operations had urged government officials to remove the vessel.

Several government agencies and their contractors may begin raising the vessel this week.

The Washington Department of Ecology shared the video below:

Global Diving and Salvage divers see a dark brown stream of oil flowing from the Deep Sea on May 23, 2012. Globules of oil float to the surface and are caught in a containment boom. Source: Washington Department of Ecology

A diver wearing a helmet camera documents small releases of oil from the Deep Sea on May 23, 2012. The divers also attached a laminated legal notice on the captain’s chair in the wheelhouse.
Source: Washington Department of Ecology